Northstar Travel Group announced it has acquired HotelsWorld, the leading suite of hotel industry events for senior hotel executives in the Australia & New Zealand region.

HotelsWorld comprises four consecutive events held over three days in Sydney, Australia each July and attracts over 500 industry CEOs and other senior executives involved in the operation and ownership of hotels, resorts, serviced apartments and alternative forms of guest accommodation in the region. HotelsWorld is being sold by Hotels World Australia Pty Ltd., founded and owned by John Smith.

Northstar is the leading information, media, event, marketing solutions and technology provider to the global travel and meetings industry. In May 2017, Northstar acquired the portfolio of events comprising the Burba Hotel Network (“BHN”), the leading global producer of hotel investment conferences.
The HotelsWorld event will be operated in conjunction with Northstar’s other hospitality focused events including ALIS, The Americas Lodging Investment Summit, which is the world’s largest hotel investment conference; HICAP, Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific in Hong Kong, which is the largest hotel investment conference in Asia and one of the longest continuously running hotel investment conferences in the world; HICAP Update in Singapore; AOCAP, the Alternative Ownership Conference – Asia Pacific in Singapore; HIFI Hotel Investment Forum India in Mumbai; CHRIS, the Caribbean Hotel and Resort Investment Summit in Miami; HOLA, the Hotel Opportunities Latin America conference in Miami; and Hot.E, the Hotel Investment Conference Europe in London. Northstar and BHN will be able to leverage their databases, relationships, media properties and domain expertise to help grow HotelsWorld further.
John Smith will continue to be involved in the organization and delivery of HotelsWorld under Northstar’s ownership. Ashurst, Australia’s leading legal firm, has co-hosted HotelsWorld since its inception and will continue to co-host the event in conjunction with BHN.

“Northstar’s ownership of HotelsWorld is an exciting development in the growth of the event and is a further indication of the growing importance of hotels and hospitality in this region” said John Smith. “I am confident that its involvement will build on the momentum we have created and will take HotelsWorld to the next level.”

“We believe that the addition of HotelsWorld to BHN’s portfolio of global hotel investment conferences is an important step in building out the global leadership of BHN within the hotel investment industry,” said Tom Kemp, chairman and CEO of Northstar Travel Group. “The underlying growth of the Australian and New Zealand hotel, travel and tourism business is a strong driver in making this strategic investment.”

Jim Burba, founder and president of BHN added, “We have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with John and have great respect for his leadership position in Australia and New Zealand hotel investment community. The synergies between our existing portfolio of events in Asia and HotelsWorld are potentially enormous, and in combining efforts we’ll finally be able to shine a proper spotlight on the opportunities in Australia and the Pacific.”

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About HotelsWorldHotelsWorld is the leading suite of annual industry events in the Australia and New Zealand region for CEO’s and other senior executives in the accommodation industry. Held each July in Sydney, Australia and comprising four consecutive events in three days, HotelsWorld presents over 100 speakers to an audience of over 500 delegates, and is supported by many of the region’s leading hotel owners, operators, developers, suppliers and industry bodies as sponsors, exhibitors and supporters. HotelsWorld 2018 will be held from 24 to 26 July 2018, visit www.hotelsworld.com.au for more information.

About Northstar Travel GroupNorthstar is the owner of well-known brands including Travel Weekly, TravelAge West, Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Meetings & Conventions, Travel Weekly China, Incentive, M&C China, Web in Travel and the events that comprise the Burba Hotel Network. The company produces more than 84 face-to-face events in 11 countries in retail travel, hospitality and hotel investment, corporate travel, travel technology, sports travel, and the meetings and incentives industry. In addition, Northstar owns Phocuswright, the leading research, business intelligence, and event producer serving the fastest growing segment of the travel industry, online travel distribution. Northstar is also the majority shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software, CRM database marketing and predictive analytics business serving the mountain destination, activities, and specialty destination travel markets.

Northstar Travel Group is owned by funds managed by EagleTree Capital.

About EagleTree CapitalEagleTree Capital, formerly Wasserstein Partners, is a leading independent private equity and investment firm, focused primarily on leveraged buyout investments and related investment activities. EagleTree manages capital on behalf of institutional and individual investors. The firm is focused on investments primarily in the media and communications, consumer products, and water and industrial sectors. EagleTree is located in New York. For more information, visit www.eagletree.com.